Star Trek: Defiant

"Alternatives" - Part One

Written by Eric L. Busby

Legion was working on a small device that looked about the same size of a tricorder when Jennifer Matute came into the security office. She had come to fill out her daily report for the captain. Yet now she found herself looking over at Legion and the work he was putting into the devise. There were a number of tools that laid scattered about the work table. In the end she came over to him.

"What are you doing?" The Changeling asked. Legion looked up from his work and then back and the devise.

"Trying to build a temporal quantum unit." He said in a voice as though it should have been very obvious to all. Jen looked down at the mesh of wires and computer chips forced together.

"And just what is a temporal quantum unit?" Jen asked. Legion sighed and looked up from his work.

"The Brotherhood call them a TQU for short. A TQU is a machine used to moved back and forth through time," He explained, "Its my hopes that with this," He said now gesturing at the TQU, "That I can return to the 31st century and try and bring about the down fall of the Brotherhood."

"I see," Jen said somewhat impressed," So its your goal to build a time machine and return to your own time and over through an evil galactic army all by yourself."

"Of course not! What do I look like a nut case?" Legion said in a hurt voice, "Have to get the TQU working before I can do that."

"I see." Jen said wondering if Legion was joking with her or if he had been serious. She watched as Legion worked for a few more moment. She was about to leave and finish her report when suddenly there came a bright flash of light. The light went as quickly as it had came. Legion stopped what he was doing and snarled.

"Damn!" He muttered under his breath.

"What is it?" Jen asked.

"I had a power flux pass through the TQU," Legion said as he closed the case, "Doesn't look like it fried anything. I'll have to scan it to make sure."

"Is that what caused the flash?" Jen asked.

"Yeah, but its nothing to worry about." Legion said running a scanner unit over the TQU. Jen was about to leave him to his work when the doors to the office opened and Captain Bridges walked in.

"Good morning commander. Is your report ready?" Bridges asked. Then he saw the half Borg, "Legion." He said in greeting. It was then that Jen released something very odd was going on.

Captain Bridges was walking. Some months ago Jeffery Bridges had been infected with nanites. They had crippled him and he had been unable to walk since. Now he was a virtual prisoner in a hover chair. And yet here he was, standing on his own two feet and walking about.

"When were you cured?" Jen asked the captain. Bridges frowned.

"When was I cured of what?" He asked.

"The after effects of the nanites that crippled you." Jen asked. Bridges looked confused.

"What are you talking about commander?" Bridges asked.

"When we took out Starfleet command you became infected with a series of nanites that left you crippled," Jen said, "Doctor Rael has been looking for a way to cure you since then."

"When did this happen?" Bridges asked confused, "And who is Doctor Rael?"

Now Jen was starting to get confused, "Your fiance," Jen said, "The chief medical officer on the ship."

"Our chief officer is Mark Smullen," Bridges said, "I've never met any Doctor Rael. And I have never been crippled."

Jen opened her mouth and was about to say something when she heard Legion mutter, "Oh my."

"Now what is it?" Bridges asked. Legion looked at both Bridges and Jen.

Legion was going over the TQU with the scanner still. He sighed and put the scanner down. Then he turned and faced Bridges and Jen. "It would seam the commander and I have a problem," Legion began, "It somewhat complex to explain."

"Tell us best you can Legion." Jen said. Legion sighed and pulled a piece of paper over. He picked up a pen and drew a line across the paper.

"OK," Legion said, "Let say this line represents our universe," He said. Then he drew a second line next to the first one, "And lets say this second one is one of those multiple alternative universes out there."

"All right," Bridges said, "Go on."

"I have reason to believe that commander Matute and I came from this universe over here," He said pointing at the first line, "And somehow crossed over here." He said now pointing at the second line.

"What?" Bridges asked.

"I just noticed it when I did a scan of this unit," Legion began again, "For the last few hours I have been working on a devise that would let a person move through time. However it would seam I have made a major fault. Instead of being able to move a person through time. It now cause shifts in quantum reality."

Jen snapped her fingers, "That flash of light." She said. Legion nodded his head.

"Caused us to move into this reality." He said.

"So you two are from another universe," Bridges said, "One thats running parallel to this one."

"Yes." Legion said, "Its my fault that we're here."

"I remember something like this happened to commander Worf about ten years ago. But that was a natural subspace event," Jen said, "Ours is artificial. Can we get back?" She asked.

"I believe so," Legion said, "Once the unit has been calibrated."

"And how do you calibrate it?" Bridges asked.

"By moving through other quantum reality," Legion said, "Once the unit is able to tell the difference from the quantum signature of those universe and our personal quantum signature. It will be able to send us back to our own universe."

"How many universes do we have to go through?" Jen asked.

"Around eight," Legion said, "Ten at the out most."

"Sounds like you two have a trip ahead of you." Bridges said.

"Yes," Jen sighed, "We might as well as get this over with." She said. Legion picked up the TQU.

"You might want to get a few feet away from us Captain," Legion said, "I would hate to drag you along with us."

Bridges smiled and stepped back a few steps. Legion began to press a few button and a humming noise rose from the TQU. Jen looked over at the other Captain Bridges.

"You might want to try and looked up a Laine Rael from Bajor," she said, "I think the two of you would really hit it off."

"I'll think about that commander," Bridges said, "Good luck to you both."

"Thanks." Legion muttered. There was a flash of light and Legion and Jen both vanished leaving Bridges alone on the lab.

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